1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to wireless communication components and more particularly to global positioning satellite (GPS) technology/wireless communication integration of such components, and notifies a person or object that they are at or near the geo-spatial location of a significant event of subscribed data by the person or object.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rapid advances are being made in the field of wireless communication. An increasing number of applications are being developed for the wireless device platform, ranging from smart cellular phones to two-way text pagers. By the year 2001, new cellular phones are required to have a location-tracking device based on the global position satellite (GPS) network. This gives rise to systems that deliver real-time, location-based information and services to wireless subscribers. Typically, a wireless application retrieves data from a server to the wireless handset when the user invokes a specific function in the handset. For instance, a user might request flight departure time information from the server of an airline. In many cases, however, it is desirable to deliver (“push”) information to the user on a continuous basis. Personal safety is one important aspect where push technology is required. To illustrate, U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,336, discloses a positional, time-stamped based wireless communication GPS/wireless component network having “911” emergency number capability.
However, such systems do not provide complex geo-spatial related data (information) to a user while using wireless-based components to make informed decisions where an awareness of location-based event information is necessary. Examples of such location-based event information include crime reports; traffic safety reports; and environmental hazard reports.
Thus, there is need for the ability to concurrently monitor several geo-spatial related data (information) sources, for example, earthquake reports, accident reports, and safety-related news in the user's vicinity. This data can then be used for alerting them accordingly to take appropriate action. Further, there is need to provide data of future and past events dependent upon a current geo-spatial location. The present invention solves these problems by providing a real-time, location-based information system that continuously delivers information to the user's wireless handset, helping them maintain an awareness of events in their vicinity and assisting them in taking appropriate action.